‘WTF was NetEase thinking’: Marvel Rivals players enraged with one Duelist buff in season 1.5 patch

The season 1.5 update for Marvel Rivals introduced two new heroes, The Thing and Human Torch, along with a new Central Park map. But one hero balance change has players in a tizzy.

Mere hours after the patch went live, Marvel Rivals gamers took to the internet to voice their displeasure with Tony Stark. Iron Man’s Unibeam damage was buffed in the update, from 120 to 140 per second, and from 180 to 190 per second during Armor Overdrive. And it’s been felt hard, according to some.

“I’d rather play against Wolverine now,” one Redditor said. “I am insta-banning Iron Man every match. The unibeam buff is obscene. For the record, I’m playing healer and watching his beam melt my DPS mates through my entire Luna kit.”

Another support player agreed and said they’re “just getting fried all the time,” while another called him “Punisher tracking practice.” In games like Rivals and Overwatch, flying heroes like Iron Man (or Human Torch, or Pharah in OW2) are usually easy to punish with hitscan, long-range damage-dealers or snipers.

But still, the buff feels egregious for some, especially since Bruce Banner/Hulk has been routinely being banned to in high levels of Competitive play to avoid their powerful team-up ability, which also got buffed. Now, Iron Man could get banned instead and allow Hulk players to enjoy themselves, as one commenter joked.

As a high-flyer and flanker, Iron Man is very annoying for some Strategists to deal with, and it usually requires having at least on Duelist on the squad switch to a long-range hero like Punisher to deal with him. But that’s also why Adam Warlock is a sleeper pick for healers, with his ability to deal his own hitscan damage at range keeping him in the fight against Iron Man.

I haven’t seen a tough Iron Man yet in the few games I played, as I’ve been too busy having fun with The Thing. But if he does continue to be an issue, it may be a while before a nerf comes through, since NetEase Games seems to prefer large-scale seasonal updates for hero balancing.

NetEase is fairly quick to adjust course, as it showed by removing a scheduled midseason ranked reset. But it so far has been hesitant to pull the trigger on quick hero changes. If Iron Man truly is the menace that some players are claiming, that may well change.

The Tony Stark damage increase could have been put in place to also contend with Human Torch’s arrival, so as to not make Iron Man feel less relevant. But it’s entirely possible that he may have been overtuned, too.